Are your public business messages verbally abusive to potential customers?

If you follow popular "wisdom," you may be a public-messaging perp. Contrary to what many business messengers seem to believe, disregard for the rules of language in professional copy can turn potential consumers away in droves. They feel "abused" by the badgering and chaos. The smart ones simply won't tolerate it.

Yet the problem persists, growing more pervasive as the digital publishing universe expands.

For decades I've been polling consumers about the issue, and since 2012 I've been teaching small-business owners, authors, marketing professionals and others about how and why to avoid some of the most common errors in their own written and spoken public business messages.

"Your written and spoken public messages must reflect the level of professionalism and attention to detail that people can expect to find in all other areas of your business," I explain. And such is the premise of my book The $10,000 Apostrophe, due to be released in December.

One of the most common errors I encounter -- especially in self-published online marketing messages -- is the improper use of capitalization and punctuation for emphasis. And believe it or not, some of the worst offenders are those high-priced "coaches" who want to teach me how to make gazillions as a professional copywriter!